


Whole

by Saadie



Series: Witness [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Parabatai, Parabatai Bond, Parabatai Feels, good parabatai, spoilers for season 3 maybe?, warning: addiction metaphor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 08:46:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13498584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saadie/pseuds/Saadie
Summary: Jace and Alec are isolated from the world for a week. When they get back, Magnus witnesses a close moment between the parabatai. Mainly Magnus feels and parabatai feels.“Parabatai,” Alec says reverently, the word itself like a caress of Jace’s still tender soul, “I am with you, always.”Warnings:- There is an addiction metaphor happening here. It wasn’t intentional at all, but it’s definitely there.- Potential spoiler for season 3. I think it's one most people know about... But you are warned!





	Whole

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write something with my OTP Malec and OTParabatai, and it turned out way differently than I imagined. But I think I like it!

Alec and Jace had been gone for a week.

After Jace’s bond with Sebastian was severed, it was if Jace’s soul was no longer whole - he felt _wrong_ \- and nothing they tried to fix it was helping.

And it wasn’t only affecting Jace. Alec was being driven to distraction, obsessing over everything he felt, or _didn’t_ feel, through their now tenuous connection.

So, Alec, Magnus, and Izzy hatched a plan, did a lot of research, and sent Jace and Alec off into the wilderness for a week, equipped with meditation techniques, rituals, copies of ancient texts on parabatai... and no phones.

Alec had of course been reluctant to leave his phone, worried that something could happen while he was gone, but ultimately decided it was necessary for them to be completely isolated from everything and everyone - to study and meditate and bond together, while relying only on each other.

Alec did make Magnus and Izzy promise to portal to them if there was a real emergency, and he trusted both to be able to make that assessment.

But a week had passed without crisis, and Jace and Alec were expected back today.

~~~~~

Magnus finishes up with his client and picks up his phone, smiling when he sees one voicemail message from Alec, received over an hour ago.

_“We're back! I really missed you. Izzy tells me you have a big client project today, so I'm going to start on the pile of paperwork that accumulated on my desk this week… But when you're done - as soon as you're done - swing by and we can get some food, go home? Love you.”_

Alec sounded upbeat. Magnus hopes that means their plan worked. As he flicks one hand around gathering his supplies, he texts Alec with the other: _“Done, and just in time for dinner :) P.S. I missed you more ;) Love you.”_

~~~~~

As Magnus approaches Alec's open office door, he finds the parabatai mid-conversation.

“Jace, it's okay,” Alec says softly from behind his desk.

“How? It's been, what, like, an hour of not being in the same room as you and already I can't deal,” Jace says as he paces the room.

“We knew this might happen, right? Some temporary dependency?” Alec keeps his voice gentle and calm. “Coming back to our regular lives will just be a bit of an adjustment, for _both_ of us. And you have to allow yourself more time to heal.”

But Jace doesn't seem to have heard anything Alec said. He stops pacing but looks jittery.

“You put me back together… mended my soul with parts of your own…” Jace’s voice shakes with emotion, “and without you...” he trails off.

Alec, who has gotten up from his desk and made his way quickly over to Jace, reaches for him and places a hand at the back of his neck, forcing Jace to focus, for them to lock eyes.

Magnus meanwhile, feeling like an intruder even though he is observing through a wide open door, has taken several steps straight back, getting out of earshot from the pair’s relatively hushed voices.

But as Magnus is about to turn away completely, a pang of false jealousy freezes him in place as he sees Alec slip his free hand under the hem of Jace’s t-shirt, just above his hip, to rest skin to skin on the rune there.

“ _Parabatai_ ,” Alec says reverently, the word itself like a caress of Jace’s still tender soul, “I _am_ with you, _always_.”

Jace closes his eyes and shivers as relief washes over him, cleansing him of panicked emotions, making rational thinking possible again. He sighs heavily and Alec feels the tension drain from him. And Alec wants to keep it that way.

“I can stay here tonight,” Alec offers, his hands slowly falling away from Jace.

“No, you should go home to Magnus.”

“Magnus can come here.”

“He doesn't like it here.”

“He doesn’t mind my room. It’s just one night.”

Jace shakes his head, “That’s just it. It’s not a long term solution. You were right before, we just need to push through the next few days.”

Alec frowns, that’s not really what he meant. But he is prepared to take Jace’s lead on this. Jace is the one struggling. To Alec, their bond feels normal again - definitely stronger and more attuned than ever before, but normal and steady.

“Alright,” Alec concedes, then turns to head back towards his desk. Out of habit he picks up his blinking phone, forgetting he still has about a million notifications from his week away. But to his delight, the one at the top now is from Magnus.

“Speaking of Magnus, he’s on his way here,” Alec says, a smile playing across his face, the glint in his eyes obvious.

“Good,” Jace says, taking a breath before beginning, and then aborting, a move to exit Alec’s office. “...Before you go, can we redo some runes?”

“Sure,” Alec says casually, “Which ones?” They’d drawn plenty all week so he wasn’t sure what would be due for a trace.

Jace looks at his own arms, the runes there all sharp black.

“I don't know. I don't know,” he repeats, already sounding a little frantic again as he starts to pull up his shirt to look for anything fading, “I just need… something.”

“Off,” Alec instructs, nodding his head at Jace’s t-shirt, and a second later removing his own long sleeved one.

In one fluid synchronous movement their steles come out and they line up face to face, only inches apart. Then, they simultaneously and wordlessly begin to draw, using two hands each, one wielding the stele against their partner and the other pressed into skin.

Though misplaced as it feels, Magnus’s jealousy roars back. It’s not that his lover’s hands are on another man, or that another man’s hands are on his lover. For one, that man is Jace, and even if it wasn’t, he trusts Alec. But as Magnus begins to work through it he recognizes how much he missed Alec has made him feel vulnerable.

Now, truthfully, he probably _is_ a little jealous, what with knowing that Alec will likely never take a vacation with him for a whole week without phones. Rationally, he knows it would be a tall order anyways; Magnus himself would struggle to get away for that long. And it wasn’t really a fair comparison, as Jace and Alec weren’t on vacation - what they had planned for the week could only have been difficult and emotionally exhausting.

So, he does his best to shake the feeling aside, finally peeling his eyes away from the scene, deciding instead to ponder what runes they are drawing. Magnus smiles fondly to himself when he realizes he’ll find out tonight when he gets Alec out of his shirt for entirely different purposes.

With that thought, the jealousy vanishes.

~~~~~

Once Jace and Alec finish the runes, they dress and prepare to part.

“Good?” Alec asks.

“Yeah. Thanks,” Jace says, brave face breaking just a fraction.

Alec smiles sympathetically at him, “Come here.”

They wrap up in a tight embrace, faces buried into each others’ necks.

“I love you, brother,” Alec says.

Jace gives him a last squeeze and lets go. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says, stepping back.

“Call me if--” Alec begins.

“I will, promise,” Jace says, flashing a genuine smile and departing into the hall.

~~~~~

“Jace, you look well,” Magnus says when he meets Jace in the hall. It's true; there's a light in his eyes that had been missing since everything happened.

“Thanks. And thanks for letting me steal him for while,” Jace says, gesturing back towards Alec’s office, “It was… intense. But I think it needed to be. And it worked. Re-entry into the real world is just a little rough.”

Magnus only smiles in response, not sure if Jace is volunteering this information freely, or if he suspects what Magnus had seen or heard and is feeling the need to explain himself.

Jace offers a wink back, clapping Magnus on the arm, “Go. He can’t wait to see you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Would love to hear your thoughts below, and/or feel free to come chat with me over on [tumblr](https://saadiestuff.tumblr.com/)


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